A regular and constant companion on forest hikes is the Clarks’s Nutcracker. This day instead of foraging for pine nuts this nutcracker was busy feasting on crickets on a late fall afternoon. We watched as she swooped down from a tree landed in a field and quickly picked up a cricket. We were quite surprised as it had been quite cold and well below freezing yet there were insects to be found.
Clark’s are fascinating birds that each year bury tens of thousands of pine nuts. They remember the location of a large majority of the seeds which they consume during the winter. The seeds they forget then may become new trees and thus the Clarks it integral to the growth of new forests.
The woodpeckers here are stashing a lot of seed. We hear them pecking against the siding of the house at times. One day, I cranked open a window and found half a dozen sunflower seeds had been tucked into the sill. They’d have a hard time retrieving those.
Hi Jim, we have a somewhat similar story but with the nuthatches. I don’t know how many times I have seen one tucking a seed under a shingle on the roof. I won’t be surprised that plants start sprouting from the roof one summer. Hope your having a wonderful weekend.
One of my favorite birds! It and the dipper are must-haves for us when birding Colorado Springs.
HI Shannon, they are fun to have around aren’t they. Hope your day is going well and wishing you a fine finish to the weekend.
Off to a fine start so far. Will be pulling into Big Bend NP with a bus load of stuff to camp and explore soon. My favorite! Cheers to you, Mike. 😀
Have fun. Must be a nice thing to camp in the winter. We will have to make it down to Big Bend some late-fall early-winter.
Cool bird! Rather smart, as well.
HI, yes they are rather smart. I bet if we could develop species specific intelligence tests for each animal species I bet we would find out that all animals are pretty darn smart.
So true. We try to measure them by human standards. Who says we’re the smart ones???
That’s what the birds say when they see us trying to fly.
That’s fascinating. I like that they know where they left most of the seeds. It’s also a really pretty bird.
HI, it does demonstrate a pretty good memory.